DuckTales is the latest mining of Disney’s money bin of intellectual property. The original series debuted thirty years ago in 1987, kicking off the Disney Afternoon and Disney’s long involvement in half-hour television animation. With the original taking loose inspiration from the long line of Disney duck comics, its major contribution to our world is a stupidly catchy theme song. Featuring (some) stories based on classic Barks comics and many originals written for the series itself, DuckTales 1987 had usually solid writing, decent animation (when TMS was at work), and real heart. It had wide appeal and would anchor the new Disney Afternoon block. The swan song of the original series was DuckTales Remastered, a video game that featured the last reunion of the original series cast and acted as kind of a "lost episode."

DuckTales 2017 returns the series more to its roots in Duck comics, taking a more balanced blend of the original TV series along with Carl Barks and Don Rosa comics material. The new show still retains a core of adventure and family starring your favorite ducks. Donald Duck, along with his nephews (via sister) Huey, Dewey, and Louie, go on high adventures with Donald’s estranged rich uncle Scrooge McDuck. Joining them as a more equal member of the team is Webby, with her grandmother Mrs. Beakley and Scrooge’s private driver/pilot Launchpad McQuack rounding out clan McDuck.

DuckTales returns in September.

DuckTales is airing on Disney Channel. You can watch it online on the Disney Now app. If you want a sampling of what the series has to offer, the first episode and several shorts up on YouTube on Disney's channel.

Scrooge McDuck (voiced by David Tennant) The world’s richest duck who made his fortune by being tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties. Scrooge is a wily businessman and keen adventurer who built his initial fortune during a gold rush. Once he had a taste for adventure, he became the world’s richest duck by acquiring artifacts that no duck dared to challenge. In later years, his adventuring spirit waned and settled into the rut of running his legitimate businesses. It takes the return of…

Donald Duck (Tony Anselmo) … to get Scrooge back into high adventure. Donald is Scrooge’s sister’s son, and joined him on many an adventure back in the day. As the series begins, he has not talked with Scrooge for a decade, having spent that time raising Huey, Dewey, and Louie as if they were his own sons aboard his houseboat. Overprotective and cautious, Donald is a short-tempered but resourceful straight man contrast to Scrooge’s risk-taking. Tony Anselmo returns to voice Donald as one of the few 1987 series original cast members.

Jet Huey Duck (Danny Pudi), “the smart one.” Huey is the oldest of the boys by a few minutes. Constantly referencing the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, his type-A personality makes him the de facto leader and planner of the trio, even though he’s not the first one to get into the action. That would be…

Turbo Dewey Duck (Ben Schwarz) “the brave one.” Dewey has Scrooge’s love of adventure and daring, but not his life experience, so he will make risky or foolish decisions like running in to a laser beam trap or changing the ship’s carefully plotted course to a straight line. Still, with some training and experience, he could be the Rusty Venture to Scrooge’s Jonas. Lastly, there’s…

Rebel Louie Duck (Bobby Moynihan) “the greedy one.” Louie is the youngest of the triplets and is generally the least ethical, spending most of the first episode calling dibs on Scrooge’s stuff or teaching Webby how to lie. Despite that, he seems to have his own brand of honesty, saying out loud what the other boys are just thinking.

Webbigail Vanderquack (Kate Micucci) A much complained about addition to the 1987 DuckTales’ cast, Webby returns in 2017 completely reimagined as a preppy shut-in nerd obsessed with clan McDuck. Half Mabel Pines and half Fred Jones, Webby is an equal to any of the boys in the group and is the chaos element to the four children.

Bentina Beakley (Toks Olagundoye) Webby’s maternal grandmother is Scrooge’s housekeeper and unwilling secretary, though I would best describe her as the avian version of Brock Samson.

“Glittering” Goldie O’Gilt (Allison Janney) is the one duck to ever equal Scrooge in both daring and adventure. Scrooge’s true rival and love, Goldie is the one treasure he was never able to secure in past incarnations, and that will likely be true in the new series.

Gyro Gearloose (Jim Rash) is Duckburg’s resident inventor and semi-ethical scientist. He creates the Gizmoduck suit, which is accidentally discovered by his intern…

Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera / Gizmoduck (Lin Manuel-Miranda). Gizmoduck is Duckburg’s resident Iron Duck superhero. Now with an updated logo that looks like a G instead of R, shedding the last vestige of the prerelease Roboduck branding

Ludwig von Drake (Corey Burton) Corey Burton returns as Ludwig von Drake, but that’s about all we know at this time.

Darkwing Duck is in the series, voiced by Jim Cummings.

Lena (Kimiko Glenn) is Webby's newest friend. A bit of a loner, she opens up to the gang after an adventure with them.

The Rogues (so far)

Flintheart Glomgold (voiced by Keith Ferguson) is the poor man’s idea of Scrooge McDuck. A self-proclaimed super-Scot, Glomgold has put himself through the wringer to become the world’s richest duck, only to continually find himself coming up behind Scrooge. He’s not content with just being better than Scrooge at money, he wants to be better than Scrooge at being Scottish too. Glomgold’s cheap, unethical, and will do whatever it takes, even if it means not curing his terminal boneitis.

Ma Beagle and the Beagle Boys (beloved character actress Margo Martindale and Eric Bauza) are also around to get in Scrooge’s way and commit their own brand of canine felony.

Gladstone Gander (Paul F. Tomkins) is the luckiest goose in the world, and everything comes easy to him. While Scrooge and Donald might not agree on much, Gladstone’s brand of easy living is anathema to both of them, making them a united front against Gladstone’s gladhanding.

Mark Beaks (Josh Brenner) is a new character created for the 2017 series, intended to spoof modern tech billionaires. He’s voiced by Silicon Valley’s Big Head, which is very appropriate, and will hopefully not date this series too much.

Magica de Spell (Catherine Tate) is set to appear in the series.

And I'm sure there'll be more to come.

* * *

Frequently Asked Questions:

Is this any good? Yes. Yes it is. I know, it’s 2017 and hating on reboots is the popular thing for several good reasons, but this is a case where they took what people liked about the old thing, made it better while also making it stand alone on its own merits.

Why’d they re-cast all the voices? With two of the main voices of the original series nearing a hundred years of age, expecting them to come back (especially now that they’re dead) is a pretty tall order. If you can’t have all of the original cast, making a total re-cast is probably the best decision, lest you end up with something that is neither fish nor fowl, a la Powerpuff Girls 2017.

I only read the comics and never liked the old TV show, is this any more faithful to the Carl Barks comics than the original series? I would say yes, in that they take a lot more inspiration from both Barks and Don Rosa, but the creators are still doing their own thing. If you’re a real comics enthusiast, there’s a ton of fodder for you in design, background gags, and the fact that Donald is much more involved in the new series. If Don Rosa could quit being grumpy for a moment and actually actually try it, I bet he’d like it.

They mentioned Cape Suzette / Spoonerville / Saint Canard. Does this mean other Disney Afternoon characters could show up? Absolutely! Darkwing Duck is already confirmed to show up in the series, and the creators have stated that they’ve been given carte blanche to mine the Disney Afternoon and other IP for story gold, with the exception of Rescue Rangers (move rights) and Mickey Mouse.

Reference Material

Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree

Webby's Pepe Sylvia Board

Map of Duckburg

kefkafloyd fucked around with this message at May 24, 2019 around 16:39

Also, if Cape Suzette exists in this universe, does that mean Shere Khan is one of Scrooge's business rivals?

It is possible that while we have Cape Suzette in this universe(as well as Sky Pirates), that the characters in Tale Spin that originated in The Jungle Book might be off limits themselves, as apparently there's been some issues in the past between Disney and Ruyard Kipling's estate(as well as the estate of the singer King Louie is based on)

It is possible that while we have Cape Suzette in this universe(as well as Sky Pirates), that the characters in Tale Spin that originated in The Jungle Book might be off limits themselves, as apparently there's been some issues in the past between Disney and Ruyard Kipling's estate(as well as the estate of the singer King Louie is based on)

They've said they're able to use anyone except the Mouse and the Rescue Rangers, fwiw.

quote:

is it alright to ask if/how ludwig is going to be related? i always liked the thought of him not actually being a blood relative, just hung around so long that he is considered their family. i know in some old comics, he's related through marriage, so i was wondering if you guys were going to stick to that or do something else? thanks so much for your time!

We have a very specific use for Von Drake that represents the full ambition of our show, story-wise. Very excited for you to see it.

Looks like we'll be finding out how he's related to Donald and Scrooge, as well.

It is possible that while we have Cape Suzette in this universe(as well as Sky Pirates), that the characters in Tale Spin that originated in The Jungle Book might be off limits themselves, as apparently there's been some issues in the past between Disney and Ruyard Kipling's estate(as well as the estate of the singer King Louie is based on)

Given Talespin was kind of a period piece, they might have the setting but the events of the show are historical. Though there has been concept art of the Iron Vulture...

It wasn't perfect, but I definitely enjoyed the premiere. Not only were there some solid jokes ("Lying, it's the responsible thing to do"), but the animation in particular was absolutely stellar-I love how they tried to emphasize the feel of the show being ripped straight from the comic pages, to the point of utilizing Ben-Day dots in many of the backgrounds. I'm also a fan of just how many references there are to the works of Carl Barks and Don Rosa, especially in the intro-practically every scene is a reference to old paintings Barks did of Scrooge, and one painting is even included in the show itself:

Suffice it to say, I think they've done a great job of adapting the old material into the modern show, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

I was a huge fan of both the show and the comics when I was a kid, and I watched the first episode of this and I got a huge kick out of it. Definitely recommend that anyone who's on the edge should give it a try.

The RR property is tied up in Disney wanting to make a film, so they're off limits to the show's creators.

But I dunno, I can't see them fitting even if they had permission. Rescue Rangers works because they're small heroes in a big world. Once they start interacting with the big people and get treated like normal characters you lose a big part of what makes their premise unique.

As far as I know there isn't a snafu. They just aren't allowed to use it because Disney wants to make a movie. Similar to the Bat embargo from JLU I guess, though that was due to another TV series than a movie.

A: In order to make our show look more like an old comic brought to life, our intrepid art director Sean Jimenez bought massive pieces of blank, weathered newspaper sheets and had his friends at Imagineering do an impossibly high res scan of it. He then layered it under every background in the show to provide that old comic strip texture. If you look closely, you’ll notice the actual newspaper pulp.

Acebuckeye13 fucked around with this message at Aug 14, 2017 around 19:34

I will not allow anyone, no matter who they may be, to threaten my everlasting shitposts.

1. Disney put my boys Jose Barioca and Panchito Pistoles in one of the Mickey shorts, which means Disney knows they exist and they're cool with using them, so please put them in DuckTales for me, thanks

2. Since apparently the entire Disney vault is useable, that also means they could maybe use some of the weird stuff like Quackshot or Maui Mallard, right?

Dewey(?) straight up mentioned Cape Suzette in the first couple scenes so I'm hoping we get some Tale Spin in this. Also whatever Launchpad is flying looks a lot like the seaduck.

Launchpad is flying a highly stylized version of a Grumman seaplane, most similar to the Grumman Albatross. Its sister planes are the Goose and the Duck, though the Albatross was the largest and most iconic of those planes.

So part of me wonders if The Moon is going to play a big part in the whole Della Duck myth arc via the Spear of Selene. It's certainly a place that's got a lot of cache with people who know Ducktales prior to this but I wonder if that's a little too inside baseball.

The only thing I'm not crazy about is the kids' voices - they just sound too old. I KNOW they're child characters, but it just ends up sounding like "manchild" and for example, that made the difference between me being annoyed by Dewey acting stubborn and rash, instead of feeling sorry for/understanding where he's coming from. Danny Pudi maybe does a little better job of selling it.

However, that's a minor gripe. And actual kids may like the characters the way they are so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So part of me wonders if The Moon is going to play a big part in the whole Della Duck myth arc via the Spear of Selene. It's certainly a place that's got a lot of cache with people who know Ducktales prior to this but I wonder if that's a little too inside baseball.

Just saw it myself, pretty good start and the new cast is fairly solid (the triplets being voiced by adult men wasn't quite as jarring as I'd expected, though Launchpad might take some getting used to, he sounds more like a surfer dude in this one) and I like what they're doing with the kids (Webby even SOUNDS a bit like Mabel Pines, though I could swear I've heard her actress in something before).

One thing though, I know the voice is iconic and all but maybe they could stand to tone it down a bit if they're gonna make Donald a regular in this series, I could barely understand about half of his dialogue in this episode.

I've got no idea when's the last time Disney's dubbed any of its series in Finnish (Gravity Falls for example just aired subtitled on the Disney Channel), so probably no sequel to the world's most easily misheard cartoon song lyrics. I don't think there's really a big enough of an audience for a dub anyway.